Performance

This is condensed material from Chapters 6, 7, and 8 of your text.

The basic idea behind the approach is that a flight system - be it aircraft, helicopter, UAV - has to balance two basic elements

1. The power/thrust that is available from the engine, and

2. The power required for operation

For steady level flight we are aware that T = D Or Power(available) = Power(required)

If we have more thrust available than required than we can climb.

In this section we will calculate

Max level speed

Rate of Climb

Ceiling

Range

Endurance

Take off distance

Landing length

etc.

The aircraft is represented by the drag polar

The engine performance is also known from the selection of an available engine

The calculations proceed along different streams depending if the engine outputs thrust or power. It is necessary to pay attention to the dimensions. The set of calculations are very similar.